KARACHI: Pakistan received record $18 billion inflows of home remittances during the first seven months of this fiscal year (FY22).

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Friday reported that workers’ remittances posted 9.1 percent growth during July-Jan of FY22. Home remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis rose to a record $18 billion in July-Jan of FY22 compared to $ 16.4 billion in the same period of last fiscal year (FY21), depicting an increase of $1.6 billion.

Analysts said that the Covid-related air travel restrictions and the market-based exchange rate have largely contributed and helped to divert remittances from informal to formal channels of which the healthy growth was witnessed.

The surge in workers’ remittances, which began in June 2020, continued during the current fiscal year and with $ 2.14 billion inflows in January 2022, workers’ remittances remained above $2 billion for the 20th consecutive month.

Remittances maintain momentum, amount to $2.5bn in December

However, remittances moderated in January compared to the previous month due to seasonality. Home remittances fell by 15 percent to $2.14 billion in January 2022 compared to $2.52 billion in the previous month (Dec-2021) due to seasonality.

Partly reflecting an easing of travel restrictions, inflows of workers’ remittances also declined by 5 percent in January 2022 compared to January 2021, in which home remittances inflows of $2.25 billion were arrived.

Remittance inflows during the first seven months of FY22 have mainly been sourced from Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK and USA. With 1.5 percent growth, the highest inflows of $ 4.574 billion arrived from Saudi Arabia during July-Jan of this fiscal year. Saudi Arabia’s share in overall inflows is about 25 percent.

Inflows from the UK rose by 13 percent to $2.467 billion in the first seven months of FY22 compared to $2.178 billion in the same period of last fiscal year. Inflows from the US posted 21 percent growth to stand at $1.7 billion during July-Jan of FY22. During the period under review, home remittances from UAE slightly declined 1.5 percent to $3.38 billion.

Remittance inflows during January 2022 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia amounted to $540 million, United Arab Emirates worth $374 million, United Kingdom $320 million and United States of America worth $208 million.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022